RECENT NEWS

National surveillance data published by the UK Health Security Agency show that antibiotic-resistant infections in 2023 surpassed pre-pandemic levels. There were an estimated 66,730 serious antibiotic-resistant infections in 2023, compared to 62,314 in 2019.

​The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has launcjed a consultation on proposed changes to the regulatory requirements a medical device (including IVDs) must meet before it is placed on the market in Great Britain. The consultation will close on 5 January 2025.

Bio-Rad Laboratories has announced updates on its oncology assay portfolio and regulatory milestones, ahead of its presence at the AMP 2024 meeting.

Clinisys WinPath go-lives at Northern Health and Social Care Trust and the cervical cytology screening service complete phase three of the CoreLIMS programme to transform pathology services across the country.

A medical drone delivery service for Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, in partnership with Apian and Wing, is now up and running in London following its first successful flights. The six-month trial could become the blueprint for drone delivery of other medical items across the wider NHS.

The October issue of PiP has been published and is available to read online.

In a recent study, researchers at the University of California, San Diego, have provided new insights into the central role of goblet cells - specialised cells that line the gut - in maintaining a healthy and balanced immune environment within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. The findings open promising avenues for therapies that target goblet cell functions and could help develop treatments for GI diseases affecting millions globally.

The government and NHS England are set to reveal plans to reduce the NHS’s reliance on agency staff, as the cost to the health service of hiring temporary workers sits at £3 billion a year.

Bio-Techne has recently achieved In Vitro Diagnostic Regulation (IVDR) certification for its R&D Systems haematology controls and calibrators.

A revolutionary breast cancer diagnostic technology has been adopted by international healthcare giant Bupa as part of a huge global expansion.

US diagnostic firm Veravas has announced a collaboration with Phanes Biotech to co-develop a blood-based Alzheimer’s disease (AD) tau pathology test. Phanes Biotech is an early-stage biotech company focused on treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.

Starlab International, a laboratory product manufacturer, recently concluded its sixth annual Sustainability Weeks, a widely successful event series that saw participation from over 100 laboratories across Europe. This year’s Sustainability Weeks, held from 7 to 25 October, significantly outperformed the previous year, with attendance rising from 85 to more than 100 labs and approximately 3,000 participants engaged overall.

Cleveland Clinic researchers are presenting updated findings from their novel study of a vaccine aimed at preventing triple-negative breast cancer, the most aggressive and lethal form of the disease.

Inify Laboratories has announced a new partnership with the ProMort research team at Karolinska Institutet, aimed at transforming prostate cancer diagnostics. The primary objective of this collaboration is to improve the precision of prostate cancer diagnosis through AI-driven image analysis.

University College Dublin (UCD) researcher Dr Nicola Fletcher has received a European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant for her groundbreaking diagnostic project, NanoX.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has announced that it has detected a further two cases of Clade Ib mpox. The two new cases are both household contacts of the first case, announced on 30 October. This brings the total number of confirmed UK cases to three.

Cepheid’s Xpert Mpox point-of-care test has been listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) under its Emergency Use Listing (EUL) procedure.

Diagnexia, the clinical digital pathology service of Deciphex, has opened a new, cutting-edge histopathology laboratory in Oxford.

As part of the Autumn Budget 2024, the government has allocated the NHS an extra £25.7 billion over this year and next as it looks to reform the Service and cut waiting lists.

New data presented by Roche at the 17th Clinical Trials in Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD) congress in Madrid, Spain highlight the potential of the Elecsys Amyloid Plasma Panel and Elecsys ptau181 for ruling out Alzheimer’s disease related amyloid pathology with very good accuracy.